Ray Sloan
by Adventures of the Blue Car
Summary: A former police officer is haunted by his past. In his case- the returned nightmare takes the shape of his old patrol car that vanished half a century ago.
1. Enter Ray Sloan

Submitted for your approval- a rusting police car. In her day, circa 1955, her model was one of the most efficient, state of the art vehicles on the force. Now cracks spiderweb her windshield, stuffing bleeds from cuts in the seat covers, and the scarlet tinted globe sits silently on the roof. For all intents and purposes, a relic from a long ago time.

Enter one Ray Sloan, aged 72, retired police lieutenant and like the aforementioned patrol car- a relic from a long ago time. His faded leather shoes tread into our story on the hay swept paddock that hosts Lake Tardis' annual automobile show.

The car exhibits include the '60's Batmobile, Bonnie and Clyde's getaway car, a time traveling DeLorean, Stephen King's Christine and as you may have guessed- the old patrol car in all her rusted glory.

The town council may have leased Farmer Bradley's land on the outskirts of town for the car show. The Flyers stuck in every nook and cranny across town might indeed list Farmer Bradley's land as the location for the event. Farmer Bradley himself is being financially compensated for the tyre track upheaval of his grass, soda cans littering his field and the merry-go-round stamping its mark on his Earth. However, despite all of the above evidence, the car show is not being held anywhere near Farmer Bradley's land. In fact, it isn't even taking place in the same state. This year's annual car show has been relocated to a shadier place. Rain, hail or shine- the car show will be showcasing automobiles of all makes and models in the grounds of the Twilight Zone.

Ray Sloan, a man who is not only owned by the past but who belongs to a certain rusting police car, ever since a traumatic altercation in his past. He hasn't seen the car since the incident, nor has he been looking. For the last time he lay eyes on her, the car was sinking into frozen Lake Tardis with his partner, Officer Dave Sanderson, trapped inside. Both were never recovered, and like them- Ray Sloan never did either. Not only dropping out of the force but dropping out of life itself.

No, Ray Sloan hasn't seen that patrol car for over half a century and he would have bet his right arm with absolute certainty that he never would again. But as his tired eyes gaze past fenders and tyres, all bets are off. For his eyes focus on the specter from his past, a resurrected phantom from an ancient nightmare- the rusting patrol car.

Like throbbing strokes of engine pistons, the old timer's heartbeat speeds up the nearer he gets to her. Like headlights on high beam, his tired eyes illuminate the serial number on the black and white door, '789,' leaving no doubt that it was _his_car- despite the fact that the car has a very different view of the ownership situation.

Stalled in time momentarily, the memory of Ray Sloan reverses back to that chilly snow covered December night half a century ago. He and his partner Dave Sanderson were in hot pursuit of a stolen ice-cream truck that blasted a music box tune of 'Greensleeves.' It made it across frozen Lake Tardis, but Sloan and Sanderson's patrol car did not.

After the earth shattering crack and plummet through the ice, Ray Sloan managed to pull himself through his half opened window and escape the sinking tomb. His next memory was coming-to on the chilled sandy shore- alone.

A search of Lake Tardis yielded no sign of Officer Sanderson or even the car. When a more extensive search was carried out in the Spring, nothing was raised but the same results- no man, no car. Sloan escaped a judicial inquiry but couldn't get away from the grief of loosing his partner.

Now, the haunting feelings rush to the surface of Ray Sloan's mind. Fleeing the car exhibit in disbelief only to bump into David Sanderson's widow- Nan Sanderson, now the 69 year old Nan Presley after a marriage to an Elvis impersonator.

"Ray!" She smiles, more pleased by the run-in than hurt from it. Ray Sloan was hurting however, as he had never gotten over the undercurrent of a passionate crush he harbored for his partner's wife, and then overwhelming guilt for the same feelings for his partner's widow, and then finally despair as he watched Nan date, marry divorce, re-date, re-marry, re-divorce and so on.

The only thing Sloan can muster to say in response is, "how's Elvis?"

Nan laughs, and as Sloan tries desperately to think of the impersonator's real name, she quickly changes the subject and asks if he has seen any interesting cars.

Sloan shudders and glances over his shoulder back at his nightmare on four wheels, only to find an empty plot on Farmer Bradley's otherwise crowded field.

The mind of Ray Sloan was now in a state of rotation. Had he really seen the old patrol car and it had simply driven off while his back was turned? Or had he imagined the whole spectacle? Had years of deep guilt at being the one who survived finally caught up with him?

He abruptly excuses himself from Nan and heads straight to his old workplace- the Lake Tardis Police Station.

Stainless steel has replaced everything wooden and familiar to Sloan. Sergeant Pie ends up being the only old timer still attached to the force who remembers the 1955 disappearance in Lake Tardis. He confirms to Sloan that it is a cold case as no trace of David Sanderson or the patrol car has ever turned up. Sloan thanks the Sergeant and dodges a few memories of, quote- 'the good old days,' before retreating home.

That night, resting in his plaid couch chair, Ray Sloan has successfully blocked the car sighting from his tormented thoughts. He finally begins to drift off to sleep to the music of the Tonight Show theme, only to be shaken awake by a flashing red light piercing through his front window curtains.

He hopes a neighbour has put their Christmas lights up early, he wishes a light aircraft could be flying low, and he prays that a fire hydrant might be on fire. But as his wrinkled, shaking hand draws the curtain back, the sight of the idling patrol car's rotating scarlet siren illuminating the damp, lamppost lit street dashes all of Ray Sloan's hopes, wishes and prayers for a reasonable explanation.


	2. Defiant Ray Sloan

Behind the steering wheel appears to be a dark figure of a man, but Sloan is unwilling to trust is terrified eyes. That is, not until the cop car's passenger door clunks open, and peels off years of rusted fusion. It was now that Ray Sloan knew his old partner was beckoning him from the icy grave.

The old man crouches away from view- a move he had performed often when the landlord would stop by for payment. He slinks back into the comfort of his chair and turns the volume up on the Tonight Show's guest singer, Justin Bieber- in the hopes that 'Baby, Baby' will drown-out the outside terror.

He doesn't know when the siren's flashing went away, as his eyes remained firmly shut all night.

Awaking in the sane light of day, Ray Sloan guesses it was around seven a.m- never one to be quite certain of the time since his grandfather's clock had stopped. Like the broken clock, Sloan too ceases to recognize the passage of time. But unlike the clock, he never made the title of grandfather or father- a wasted life spent wondering why he escaped the lake and his partner did not. Now the universe has given Ray Sloan an answer to his question in the shape of a patrol car driven by, he assumes, his dead partner. Back to taxi Sloan to the fate he avoided so long ago.

After growing from scared to angry during morning coffee and biscuits, the old man decides not to go gentle into that good night. He tosses on his best hat and slippers and marches his frail frame back to Farmer Bradley's field of autos. Asking around, it soon becomes apparent that Sloan was the only one to see the patrol car on display yesterday and he is assured that the empty plot has always been empty.

It was true then- the black and white cop car was for him and she was death herself. The old man stands on the empty plot where his nightmare once manifested herself, and he whispers to the windy grass around his slippers.

"You're not going to get me. You've cast a shadow over my whole life. Enough." Ray Sloan makes a decision then and there that he will not, under any circumstances, get into that car.

The Merry-go-round also then and there makes a decision to loose one of it's passengers. A small, freckle faced boy not unlike Huckleberry Finn looses his grip on the fast rotating carousel horse. Speed and gravity proceed to plow him into the ground. Horrified spectators rush to the boy's side, careful not to move him as he looks to be in the worst shape. As the crowd converges, something else moves onto the scene- a black and white car seems to ghostly roll through the crowd towards the boy's seemingly lifeless body.


	3. Exit Ray Sloan

As the car's passenger door swings open, Ray Sloan knows what he has to do. Death wants to take someone on it's road trip to hell, and Sloan will be damned if he lets her snatch a small boy in his place.

Rushing through the crowd in a hurried manner that he usually reserves for his run from store detectives, he catches up with the phantom car and with a breath of hope he leaps through the opened door, which promptly slams shut.

In the driver's seat sits Dave Sanderson, appearing younger than ever. The view out the front windshield isn't Farmer Bradley's farm but rather a snow swept street and a speeding ice-cream truck.

"Dave, is it you?" Sloan asks, out of breath from not only his run but from unbelievable terror.

Dave shrugs off his partner's strange question and reminds Sloan they are in hot pursuit of a stolen ice-cream truck as the windshield demonstrates by being belted with cones full of strawberry and chocolate scoops from the truck's back open door.

Thinking he has been given a second chance to put right what once went wrong, Sloan insists they pull the car over and not pursue the truck across frozen Lake Tardis.

Officer Sanderson does not concur, and engages the windscreen wipers to clear off the attacking ice cream cone smudges. A struggle over the steering wheel insures and before either of the cops know it, their car raptures the thin ice and crashes into the freezing water below.

As they rapidly sink, Sloan comes to the realization through shivering breathlessness that he is wrong- he hasn't come back to stop the patrol car accident. Instead he has come back to live life. He won't shy away from the world but embrace the days and years that await. He will be the one to marry Nan Sanderson and have many children, making the taunting grandfather clock not the sole grandfather in his house.

He pulls himself through his half opened window, fighting the inrush of heavy water. After swimming to the surface of the lake, Sloan washes up on the same shore as before.

Happy and thrilled to be alive in the past, Ray Sloan is suddenly devastated to catch sight of his reflection in the lake. Staring back at him is not the young man he had been in 1955 but his current old, wrinkled self. Yes, he had been sent back in time but his youth was not there waiting for him like a new suit on a hanger.

_Two _police offices were reported missing the next day this time around. Officers David Sanderson and Ray Sloan were never found.

The patrol car was a different story, however. It was recovered from Lake Tardis' murky depths almost straight away. Why was the car found this time around and not the first half a century of investigations?

Ray Sloan will tell you it's because the car wasn't even down there, not at least until it had offered Sloan a second chance to unbuckle his partner's seatbelt and rescue him from a watery grave.

A word to the wise- everyone deserves a second chance, and like everyone, Ray Sloan got one but selfishly misread it's instructions. Ray Sloan, like so many others, failed his second chance in life and now must live yesterday as the man he sees in the mirror- a man wrinkled not by age but from missed opportunities, and grayed by guilt.

Like all of us, Ray Sloan had regrets about the past, but who discovered that the past had bigger regrets with him and was able to settle an old score, by way of a rusting police car that now sits at the entrance to town as a memorial for two missing police officers. But in reality only one is missing. Case in point, officer Ray Sloan- a man who drove away from his missing in action life only to turn up missing completely in... the Twilight Zone.


End file.
